Travian is a game where you control a village. In your village there are varying amounts of the four resources: Clay, Iron, Wood, and Crop. You can upgrade your resource fields to yield higher output.
But you aren't alone! The world of Travian is a massive grid, and you will have many neighbours. Those neighbours will probably want what you've got, because you sure as fuck want what they've got. So Travian allows you to build up a complete base, and put together armies to pound your opponents into submission. Not only that, but you can annex surrounding blocks for your own use!
It isn't all warfare. Travian is no dog-eat-dog, 'very man for himself' world. You can ally with your neighbours! Travian allows you to set up bona fide alliances, with diplomats and everything. Then your alliance can declare war on another alliance. So someone's hassling you? Your alliance has got your back! But be careful who you attack, because they might have friends much more powerful than yours. Alliances select a diplomat, and for the most part its best for that diplomat to call the shots, so the alliance doesn't get destroyed based on one errant attack on a member of a huge alliance.
The Real-Time system Travian uses is pretty neat. Upgrading fields and building buildings, they all take time. Your workers will do one thing until its complete, then you can assign them to something different. For example, upgrading your fields to level 1 can take anywhere between 6 and 11 minutes per field to complete. You start with a bunch of resources to begin upgrading and building and doing whatever you want.
There is a period of time where you can't be attacked. It varies from village to village it seems, anywhere from 6 days to two and a half weeks. What I'm doing is building up all my resources to about level 3 before I do anything else, like building SCVs in starcraft. There is a building called a Cranny that hides your resources so that raiding parties can't steal them. I'll be building one of those when my time is about up. I plan to be an economic powerhouse so that later on when I've progressed a long way I can mangle shit left and right.
Everyone ought to sign up and play this game. It doesn't require more than casual maitenance a few times a day, so its very easy to play. It'll require a little patience to play like I am because I won't have anything fun to play with for about a week and a half, but man will it pay off.
I think they're restricting signups on every server but Server 4, so that's the one I'm playing. Go to the website and click the english flag up at the top right. Then hit Register. Sign up on server 4, all it takes is a quick Email activation. Set yourself up in the NORTH-WEST. You can be whichever race you want, click Information for a rundown of the races. Feel free to build your village however you want. Eventually I'll build an Embassy up to level 3 and we can start a TL alliance!
My village is at -133,26 (grid coordinates

Time to conquer the globe!
Players
-133,26 - Fakesteve (Randy Rhoads)
-79, 119- omgbnetsux
-137, 36- Hot_Bid
-116/87- Manit0u
-140, 21- Locked
-125/68 -blinkhme
(79,-121)-Dave[9]
-115/86-OverTheUnder
(-135, 46)-XDawn
-104.96-kemp1429
-79, 117-intrigue
-2 / 143-Manifesto7
-65 / 125-NeoIllusions
-26 140-Legionnaire
-102 , -103-vGl-RaGe (RaGe)
13|141 dcmsm (SoMuchBetter)
-27, 146,-cuddlycutekitte. (cuddlycutekitten)
-16 | 142-PltO (FrozenArbiter) Gaul
-58|135-JackBoy-POSER (POSER)
74 -128-k3fka Teutons
-84 | 123-test-acc (TopGear)
-28, 145,-JohnJuanda (tenbagger)
83|-124-Keepitsimple (Jim)
-145, 23-carc (ploy)
-19 148-Empyrean
-149,8-Matamata
-137|52-Murray~ (uT)Murray)
-120/87-oneofthem
106/-105-ak-nemesis
-146-/45-MightyAtom
-144, 37-hnrinsane (HnR)Insane
-112, 95-yourcube (GTR-2-GO)
-91/-114-ggnore (iNFeRnO)
-147/-23-? (TL ID Reaver, probably same here)
-11/79-snarl
-7/147-Darkmage (Frenchguy) Roman
28/-141 Abahgus[TPR] (Sacajawea)
-122|70 DaveMustaine (FakeSteve)
-124.87 Eti307
Safelist - Don't attack these guys!
Doughboy
svrwthr
NorthDakota